Burger King Dares Obama To Stop It From Fleeing To Canada

[Quick Karl]

Per their FB page today, public anger has apparently made BK back down.  Still buying Horton's but staying in the US.  Good; the greedy fucks were stunned by the response.

If you got a buck for every US company that actually pays the full 35% tax rate, you might be able to buy a whopper.  US companies do the equivalent of whining about the heat while sitting in conditioned offices.

I hope they fire your kids.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

I hope they fire your kids.

I hope you get fucked with a shovel.

[PB the Deplorable]

Per their FB page today, public anger has apparently made BK back down...

It's amazing when these companies get caught by surprise by the public reaction to something.  I wonder how they thought people were going to react, unless their announcement was a trial balloon.

[albrecht]

It's amazing when these companies get caught by surprise by the public reaction to something.  I wonder how they thought people were going to react, unless their announcement was a trial balloon.

It really makes you wonder how the companies are run when you see blunders like this. I have no problem with companies doing it and actually find fault with any company that doesn't try to minimize its tax obligation. It shows the inefficiency of the bloated tax code and means less money the government can waste.

[missing transmission]

The Burger King in my home town used to have a smoking section... so you could have a "burger"  : , a coffee flavoured coffee and the cancer-stick of your choice... all at the same time.

Ahhh the good ol' days


Denis Leary on Coffee [Lock N Load]

[albrecht]

The Burger King in my home town used to have a smoking section... so you could have a "burger"  : , a coffee flavoured coffee and the cancer-stick of your choice... all at the same time.

Ahhh the good ol' days


Denis Leary on Coffee [Lock N Load]

Depending on the cigarette and what you ordered off the menu I would dare say you risk more from the menu.

[ACE of CLUBS]

My Tim Horton stocks jumped $13.25 yesterday ......... can I send you folks some dough-nuts?

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

My Tim Horton stocks jumped $13.25 yesterday ......... can I send you folks some dough-nuts?

Nice!  I thought about buying some last year after seeing one every 200 meters in Ontario, but I wasn't sure how much room they had left to grow.  It never occurred to me that someone might take them out.  I did buy one of their travel mugs, though.  Enjoy those donuts!

[Bart Ell]

It never occurred to me that someone might take them out.

Wendy's already did. Don't quote me on this but I think they got rid of it when the Canadian government rejected the name change to TIMMAYS! and didn't want the wheel chair in the logo.

[b_dubb]

I bet they wait for public uproar to die down and THEN they move HQ to Canada.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Wendy's already did. Don't quote me on this but I think they got rid of it when the Canadian government rejected the name change to TIMMAYS! and didn't want the wheel chair in the logo.

I was surprised to learn that when I read about the BK deal.  I just figured THI was a venerable and beloved Canadian institution.  I imagine anyone who got in on the IPO and held on to their shares is very happy today.

And Wendy's commercials would undoubtedly be much better if they featured Timmy instead of Red.

[Bart Ell]

I bet they wait for public uproar to die down and THEN they move HQ to Canada.

Or wait for the uproarers to die off from the beetus.

[PB the Deplorable]

It turns out Warren 'Raise Our Taxes' Buffett is behind Burger King's attempt to avoid US taxes

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-27/buffett-burger-king-funds-flip-obama-s-inversion-calculus.html

[WOTR]

...What these companies often do is set up subsidiaries in the other countries they conduct business in.  Any profits earned offshore are retained there, instead of being remitted back to the parent company in the US in the form of dividends.  The US tax is not applied to the overseas profits until they are remitted to the US Parent.

This is true... And there have been many deals struck in the past where companies were allowed to bring the profits home and between nothing and very little as a special, limited time rate. 

It was a corporation making jet engines in (Ireland?) that was looking for another tax "loophole" opening a few years back to bring profits back home...

I found some of it... Not the entire thing- but it was years ago and this was one of the articles that I remember.  It talks about GE leasing equipment through an Irish branch to avoid taxes.  It also has two nuggets.  I am all for lower corporate taxes- but there is a limit.

...have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts â€" from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.  Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

From http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 I am so impressed that I found one of the articles that I recall that I am not even going to search for the one on companies using "one time tax breaks."  This was all several years back that and trying to find articles is a little difficult...

[WOTR]

Wendy's already did. Don't quote me on this but I think they got rid of it when the Canadian government rejected the name change to TIMMAYS! and didn't want the wheel chair in the logo.

That is the first that I have read about the reason that Wendy's spun them off (again.)  I am wondering what is going to happen to the franchises that are still stuck sharing a Wendy's location from back when the two companies were one?  Tough of the owners if Burgerking forces them to split the locations (and I cannot imagine that they will not require this.)

[WOTR]

Some companies have billions trapped overseas.  For Apple, it's been awhile, but last time I checked it was around $100 Billion

Hopefully this chart shows up to demonstrate "poor" Apple's position.  While they have over 130 billion offshore, their domestic holdings have plunged from 42 billion to 18 billion.  They actually just issued 17 billion of debt and are issuing another 17 billion.  Rather than bringing home the money to use (and facing a tax liability) they are issuing debt so they can write it off.  I really wish I had the money that I could play shell games, debt games, and tax games with offshore holdings, make billions and claim a tax refund...  (yes, that is the voice of jealous bitterness speaking.  If I could do it, I would as well.  I am not a "good" person who would pay taxes if it were possible to avoid using lawyers and loopholes.)

[Quick Karl]

Hopefully this chart shows up to demonstrate "poor" Apple's position.  While they have over 130 billion offshore, their domestic holdings have plunged from 42 billion to 18 billion.  They actually just issued 17 billion of debt and are issuing another 17 billion.  Rather than bringing home the money to use (and facing a tax liability) they are issuing debt so they can write it off.  I really wish I had the money that I could play shell games, debt games, and tax games with offshore holdings, make billions and claim a tax refund...  (yes, that is the voice of jealous bitterness speaking.  If I could do it, I would as well.  I am not a "good" person who would pay taxes if it were possible to avoid using lawyers and loopholes.)

Those tax laws didn't write themselves... Those tax laws were written by the rich to benefit the rich. When the country sits around jerking off to porn while concurrently collecting a government check then they should just shut the fuck up and take it.

[ksm32]

I hope you get fucked with a shovel.

I actually have a 12 inch spade. Perhaps easy going in but that other 90% might be problems for him. OH WAIT!! are you talkin scoop style? (the big square ones)

...that's gonna get ugly...

[WOTR]

Those tax laws didn't write themselves... Those tax laws were written by the rich to benefit the rich. When the country sits around jerking off to porn while concurrently collecting a government check then they should just shut the fuck up and take it.

But some people, I am sure were a little busy working to pay for their mortgage and food to notice.  I am pretty certain that not 100% of Americans were jerking off and causing a little bit of "splatter" on their welfare cheques while this happened.

Like you said, the laws were written by the rich to benefit the rich- but many times they were slipped in other legislation and passed by unnoticed (please do not tell me that you have the time to read every piece of legislation that Washington passes- even many of the the men and women who vote on it admit to not reading everything all the way through.)

The fact is that when GE hires enough tax lawyers, treasury officials and IRS men to reduce it's tax burden to almost nothing there is no way to stop it.  When the people who wrote the tax laws go to work for a company they know what to do.  It is worth it for GE to spend tens of millions employing the people who wrote the laws to save billions in taxes.  Again, I do not fault GE- if I had the cash to hire a man like John Samuels, I would... and by the time he was done my meager earnings would somehow transform into my owning a state lock, stock and barrel.

The other major problem with your reasoning that "they should just take it" is that somebody has to pay for it.  If we are all collecting welfare and doing nothing the corporations are going to have to start kicking in a little more to support "the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed": and I want a pony... Pay up GE.

[PB the Deplorable]

It's been reported the US has the highest corporate tax rate in the industrial world at 35% Federal, plus whatever the various states take.  And that the US is the only one that taxes it's corporations on their worldwide income instead of just what's earned here.

But there are also lots of extra write-offs, tax credits, etc., and if a company arranges it's affairs in certain ways, they can often avoid some, most, or all tax they would otherwise have paid by using these techniques.  Not to mention shuffling the profits around between the parent company and an array of subsidiaries.  Those are the laws that don't write themselves.

These huge multinational companies love high tax rates and regulations.  It hurts their smaller competitors, and the big corporations can often get around much of it.  Some industries get more breaks than others (tech companies get fat R&D credits, energy and mining companies get depletion allowances, others get front loaded write-offs for buying equipment, some get deductions for losses brought forward from previous years.  And I'd guess there are some that get absolutely fleeced and end up paying the full 35%).

In addition to lush R&D credits, tech companies (and others) get write-offs when their employees cash in their stock options.  The difference between market value when exercised and what the employee actually pays for the shares is a tax deduction for the company.  Apple must be really raking it in if they still have tax to pay after applying their R&D credits and the deduction for employee stock plans - and they still park as much as possible untaxed overseas.


On the individual tax side, in 1986 the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was passed.  This cut tax rates dramatically, but it also put an end to most tax shelters, and limited or ended certain deductions.  Tax rates were lower but ending the shelters and limiting deductions meant there was a lot more income to tax.  Overall tax revenue increased.  Instead of 'investing' in abusive tax shelters, more was invested with the idea of making money instead of avoiding taxes.

The corporate tax system now needs to be reformed along these lines.  There is plenty of low hanging fruit.

[Quick Karl]

But some people, I am sure were a little busy working to pay for their mortgage and food to notice.  I am pretty certain that not 100% of Americans were jerking off and causing a little bit of "splatter" on their welfare cheques while this happened.

Like you said, the laws were written by the rich to benefit the rich- but many times they were slipped in other legislation and passed by unnoticed (please do not tell me that you have the time to read every piece of legislation that Washington passes- even many of the the men and women who vote on it admit to not reading everything all the way through.)

The fact is that when GE hires enough tax lawyers, treasury officials and IRS men to reduce it's tax burden to almost nothing there is no way to stop it.  When the people who wrote the tax laws go to work for a company they know what to do.  It is worth it for GE to spend tens of millions employing the people who wrote the laws to save billions in taxes.  Again, I do not fault GE- if I had the cash to hire a man like John Samuels, I would... and by the time he was done my meager earnings would somehow transform into my owning a state lock, stock and barrel.

The other major problem with your reasoning that "they should just take it" is that somebody has to pay for it.  If we are all collecting welfare and doing nothing the corporations are going to have to start kicking in a little more to support "the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed": and I want a pony... Pay up GE.

Well, at least, unlike most folks here, you got half of what I implied without me having to spell out every nuance for you - and that's a lot for Bellgab...

The truth is that yes, while people are working to pay their bills, they should take the time off from jerking-off, to.... ah forget it.

People get the political and financial systems they deserve. Fuck em, the stupid morons.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

The truth is that yes, while people are working to pay their bills, they should take the time off from jerking-off, to.... ah forget it.

The thought of jerking off while gazing upon that mongoloid ogre in the mirror locked up your brain again, didn't it?  I'm on to you, Raisin Boy.

[WOTR]

People get the political and financial systems they deserve. Fuck em, the stupid morons.

I only half agree with that statement.  I believe that populations get what they deserve.  To get it down to the personal when you have to live in a society is a little harder.  Do you feel like you "deserve" Obama and "deserve" the trillions in debt that you have?

In a democracy, the collective "we" get what "we" demand.  However, there can be individuals who recognize a mistake but are powerless to prevent the consequences that they have to live through.

Nominate me emperor and supreme ruler and we can dispel with many of these issues.  People will get what they deserve as I will be the one to unilaterally decide what they get- and it will be exactly what they deserve for nominating me emperor.

[Quick Karl]

I only half agree with that statement.  I believe that populations get what they deserve.  To get it down to the personal when you have to live in a society is a little harder.  Do you feel like you "deserve" Obama and "deserve" the trillions in debt that you have?

In a democracy, the collective "we" get what "we" demand.  However, there can be individuals who recognize a mistake but are powerless to prevent the consequences that they have to live through.

Nominate me emperor and supreme ruler and we can dispel with many of these issues.  People will get what they deserve as I will be the one to unilaterally decide what they get- and it will be exactly what they deserve for nominating me emperor.

You've got my vote! 

Thanks for understanding!